Local second-graders, North Carolina high-schoolers connect through Skyped stories

POQUOSON— — Thursday story time in Charlene Hinshaw's class comes from North Carolina via Skype, an Internet video calling system, with stories read by high school students.

Hinshaw's second-graders at Poquoson Primary School are partnering with her daughter's high school students at Granville Central High School outside Durham.

Kelly Page, Hinshaw's daughter, came up with the idea after her mother got Skype capability as part of new classroom equipment made possible by a grant from the Poquoson Education Foundation.

Page's special needs students read books aloud each Thursday at 3 p.m. as their avid listeners in Poquoson look at the book pictures on the screen and listen to and discuss the story.

The partnership allows the Granville students to work on their oral language and reading skills.

"It's just an awesome thing for them," Hinshaw said. "I think it has done, for their egos, amazing things."

Page suggested the idea after Hinshaw told her she was planning to Skype with authors.

Why don't you try it with my class first, Page said.

She is a product of Poquoson City Public Schools, then worked in the schools in various capacities as she finished college.

Hinshaw has taught for 29 years; this is her daughter's second year in the classroom.

Page's class of eight students range from sophomores to seniors. At this point, each has read at least one short book during story time.

"Very few of my students enjoy reading out loud in front of their peers," Page wrote in an email. "This project has really helped these students to become more comfortable with reading in front of their peers.

"When I told my students what we were going to do they were very unsure about the project," she added. "Now they look forward to Thursday with great excitement. I even had one student who successfully read his first book completely by himself this year with this project. I had never seen him as proud."

Page's students also wrote their own stories and shared them with Hinshaw's class; the second-graders then read to the North Carolina students via Skype.

The second-graders also wrote thank you letters to the authors.

"My kids wrote awesome things to them like, 'Wow, you write such great stories,'" Hinshaw said.

"And it just boosts their egos to an extreme that they've never had because these are children that have not seen success in school, generally."